In the 1960s, under the leadership of Lowell T. Harmison (1937-2011), a biotechnologist with a PhD from the University of Maryland, the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) developed an artificial heart and implanted examples in several calves. This is functional mockup of that device.
Ref: Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., “Full Implanted Heart Devices Are Keeping 4 Calves Grazing,” New York Times (Oct. 20, 1969), p. 23.
Lowell T. Harmison and Frank W. Hastings, Artificial Heart Program in Applied Health R/D (Bethesda, Md., [1970]).
Lowell T. Harmison, “Totally Implantable Artificial Replacement Heart,” U.S. Patent 3,919,722 (Nov. 18, 1975).
Shelley McKellar, Artificial Hearts: The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology (Baltimore, 2018).
A functional mock up of a totally implantable artificial heart. Displayed on a wooden base covered with a sheet of metal with the battery in the middle of the display. Finally there is a monitor encased in a wood box, on a little pedestal. The monitor has a small screen and various knobs and switches. There are two rows of little lights marked Up/ Hold/ Down for monitoring heart rate. The mock-up was developed by Lowell T. Harmison, Ph.D., (1937-2011). He was the Director of the Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health from 1967 to 1974.
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